Cascade – Stéphane Cauchy

Cascade is a kinetic sculpture in which nine buckets, interconnected by a pulley system are suspended from the roof above a large pool. Water is pumped into each bucket until, at a critical point, it tips and empties, releasing its contents into the pool below.

The flow of water – from pool to pipe, to bucket and back to the pool – creates a perpetual cycle of filling and emptying. The buckets rise and fall in cascading rhythms like bells rung in a series of changes or a string of buoys set adrift on a choppy swell.

Stéphane Cauchy is an installation artist based in Lille, France and he uses simple mechanical devices that often take the form of improbable laboratory experiments. He aims to give physical form to the dialogue between science and philosophy and to represent the ways in which we seek to understand the world and our place in it.

In highlighting the symbolism, dynamic movement and material change in everyday occurrences he produces a poetic parallel to common-place experience within which we might glimpse other magical or psychic forces at play. Natural phenomena are combined with products of the imagination in his work to explore broad concepts of time, space and the unknownable.

Cascade is a focus of wonder and meditative calm amid the summer frenzy. A programme of events during the exhibition highlight some ideas that Cascade raises from discussions about ecological cycles to performances on the hidden life of everyday objects.

www.stephane-cauchy.com